Clean coal burning is possible. Please consider the integrated gasification combined-cycle technology, aka IGCC.
A recent description is in a publication of the American Chemical Society called the Chemical and Engineering News, Volume 82, Number 8, February 23, 2004, the article starting on page 20, entitled "Getting to Clean Coal". I personally think that the country which first wraps the pieces of this technology into a single package and uses it on a large scale will jump rapidly ahead of the rest of the world economically.
I can see from the data in that article that this technology will replace natural gas and oil from the generation of power but they only add up to 15% of the electricity generation. Its main effect will be to reduce the harmful emissions of coal burning plants which these days produce 52% of the electricity in, for example, the US. Bad emissions will be reduced almost to zero. Part of the package is underground storage of the CO2. Of course the level of cleanliness is superb and it will cost money; that's why nobody is rushing in. It will take money to do the development to cheapen IGCC. Once this is done the hypothetical adopting country can use coal in almost unlimited amounts, creating a semi-monopoly on clean energy production in the world. All the energy intensive industry of the world would transfer to that country (or region, if we are talking about the European Union.)
Despite your dismissal of coal, I expect that in your lifetime you will see a vast increase of its use, via the integrated gasification combined-cycle technology.
I certainly don't disparage wind generated power and solar power. Least of all do I disparage population control. But we also must clean the production of energy by the world's cheapest energy source, coal. |
